High drain batteries for sub ohm vaping

It’s vitally important the batteries you’re using in your e-cig mod are capable of doing the job you’re asking them to do. You need to ensure your kit isn't demanding too much from them.

When using a standard tank, the reasonably high atomizer/coil resistances means that the limitations of your battery are of less concern, but for those building their own coils, especially sub-Ohm coil resistances, the continuous discharge rate of the battery being used becomes extremely important.

The majority of devices use an 18650 size battery, (others most commonly being 18350, 18490, 26650).

Using Ohm's Law, you will see that even for sub-Ohm coil builds of 0.7Ω, 4.2V would lead to 6 amps of current (I = V/R, or amps = voltage/ohms), which is within the capabilities of many large batteries.

However, where lower resistances are concerned, the battery’s limits become an issue. Demanding too much from your batteries isn’t a good idea (especially as the maximum continuous discharge ratings are just that and can be exaggerated). It is far safer to use a battery that is totally capable of doing the job you’re asking it to do, especially if you’re going into very low resistances.

Where recommended by the manufacturer, and this is increasingly likely to be the case, the battery to use in your e-cig mod for best performance and safe operation is an unprotectedIMR battery. By e-cig mod we mean such devices as regulated mods (devices with circuitry), mechanical mods (basic battery housing with no circuitry) and RBAs (rebuildable atomizers).

You can in some instances use protected NCR/INR batteries in regulated mods (as long as the device isn’t issuing error codes for example) BUT unless you absolutely 100% know what you’re doing, only use the recommended unprotected batteries with the correct chemistry. Do not ignore manufacturer advice and if in doubt, do not use.

You shouldn’t come across these in an e-cig store, but do not use unprotected NCR/ICR li-ion batteries (these should never be used in a mod as they're different chemistry).

Using the wrong batteries, mixing and matching batteries, or asking too much of the batteries you’re using can result in explosion and fire, and don’t forget this could happen in your face!

Furthermore, a protected battery isn’t the ideal battery for a mod's optimal performance. When used with low resistance atomizers or higher voltages, more amps (more current) will be drawn from your battery, and therefore performance can be reduced but more importantly the battery or batteries can overheat.

In short, a protected battery doesn’t have the high drain load amps/current capability that an unprotected battery will have.

As far as e-cig mods are concerned, the batteries you’re looking for will generally comprise the following terminology - unprotected, high drain / high amp / high current, IMR. Exceptions to this terminology include the newer hybrid batteries (see list below) but the chemistry is still based on lithium.

IMR is telling you it’s a lithium manganese battery, also written as li-mn, which is a safer chemistry.

Always ensure you know exactly what you should be using, just in case there’s any variance. The manufacturer’s recommendations should always take precedent as far as we’re concerned.

As we understand it, unprotected IMR batteries (and hybrids) are used in regulated mods that use buck boost circuitry (buck–boost is a type of DC-to-DC converter, DC meaning direct current) in order to achieve variable voltage-wattage, but these same batteries are now also recommended by manufacturers for single voltage mechanical mods as a safer alternative to the protected li-ion batteries that were being used in the past.

You’ll find that unprotected IMR batteries have a lower capacity (fewer mAh) compared to protected batteries, which means they won’t last as long before recharging, but they’re designed for a different purpose, to handle the maximum load current (amps) required.

Panasonic/Orbtronic, Sony, and Samsung now offer hybrid batteries which offer the same unprotected high drain/amp features as described above but they’re designed to last longer before recharging (more capacity, more mAh).

Please check our individual product pages for any specific battery recommendations, for example some devices are recommended for batteries with a minimum 30 amp continuous discharge.

Also, if you're not sure what the difference is between a 30A and 40A battery, for example, take any one 3.7V battery, if it's rated at 40A, this means it's pushing out more current than the 30A. It's a bit like a river with more water in it. The voltage is the electrical pressure, and the amps/current is the amount of flow. A 40A battery will give you a warmer vape at the same setting as the 30A.

Most devices that require such batteries do not require anything beyond 30-35A output, it's the user's preference for anything greater.

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The Electronic Cigarette Co makes no guarantees that these products will stop someone smoking or cure a smoker's addiction to nicotine. We are not a pharmaceutical company and we do not produce medical products or give medical advice.